Employees with Higher Levels of Emotional Intelligence Are More Dedicated and Satisfied at Work

A new study from the University of Haifa shows that emotional intelligence plays an important role in coping with organizational politics

September 15, 2010—Employees with a high level of emotional intelligence are more dedicated and satisfied at work, compared to other employees. This has been shown in a new study from the University of Haifa. "This study has shown that employees with a higher level of emotional intelligence are assets to their organization. I believe it will not be long before emotional intelligence is incorporated in employee screening and training processes and in employee assessment and promotion decisions" stated Dr. Galit Meisler, who conducted the research.

The study, which Dr. Meisler carried out under the supervision of Prof. Eran Vigoda-Gadot, and which won the Outstanding Doctorate Award from the Israeli Political Science Association, surveyed 809 employees and managers in four organizations: two public sector organizations and two private companies. The study examined the effects of emotional intelligence on aspects of organizational politics, on employees' work attitudes, on formal and informal behavior, feelings of justice, burnout and the like.

The results show that those employees with a high level of emotional intelligence perceived organizational justice as higher than other employees did. Furthermore, employees with a high level of emotional intelligence were more satisfied with their jobs and more committed to their organizations. On the other hand, undesirable work attitudes, such as burnout, intention to leave and negligent behavior, were lower for those employees.

According to Dr. Meisler, the effects of emotional intelligence are not limited to employees' work attitudes alone, but also have an impact on various aspects of organizational politics. For example, employees with a higher emotional intelligence level perceived the organizational politics at their workplace as less severe than their colleagues did. Likewise, better political skills were demonstrated by employees with a higher emotional intelligence level. "We also found that employees with a higher emotional intelligence level were less likely to use forceful and aggressive forms of persuasion while attempting to persuade their supervisors. Those employees tended to use much softer influence tactics", concluded the researcher.